The Five Characteristics Of Civilization

1.) Advanced Cities 2.) Specialized Workers 3.) Complex Institutions 4.) Record Keeping 5.) Advanced Technology

A growing city that is the center of trade for a larger area, and has surplus. City dwellers depend on trade and produce a variety of goods on their own. Example: Farmers, merchants and traders bring their own goods form afar, and trade at the market in the city.

Have skills in specific types of work and are experts at specific jobs. A surplus (abundance) of food allows city dwellers to become things other than farmers. Example: traders, teachers, bankers, metal workers, merchants.

Long lasting patterns of organization in community with a structure used to govern the behavior of people around it. Example: Government with officials and laws. Priests with religious power.

As governments, religion, and the economy became more complex, people recognized the need to keep records. Example:Documenting tax collections, recording storage of grain, merchants recorded accounts of debts and payments, writing first evolved because of the need to keep records.

New tools and techniques are always needed to solve problems that emerge when large groups of people live together and evolve Example: Bronze weapons and body armor that gave Sumarians an advantage over their enemies, who still only had softer copper metal.